Category Archives: Management

#160 Failure to communicate

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There are times when in spite of my best efforts, I have communication gaps with my co-workers. No matter what I try, I just cannot get thru to them or see their point of view.

This is not a failure if the following is true:

  • I have made a genuine attempt to overcome communication gaps.
  • My creativity is under strain from the effort I am making.
  • Unless there is a business reason for me to stop, I will keep trying.
  • I have grown, matured, and evolved in the process.
  • I have found a third person who will carry my message to the co-worker.

This gives us a new metric for measuring communication abilities in leadership situations. The message has to get thru to your co-workers, but you may not be the best person to deliver it. Find someone who is more effective. Recognizing that, and executing on that knowledge is also leadership.

Same logic holds true if you have trouble drafting or composing your message.

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#157 The Random Question

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This is probably the biggest productivity loss in the workplace. The “random question.” The question that comes out of the blue, seems unrelated to the task at hand, to the priorities, or to a corporate initiative. The question that is asked to satisfy a curiosity.

People ask questions in an attempt to be helpful. But they don’t realize the corporate overhead being added when the receiver takes time to decode the question. Not to mention the frustration, or wasted time in answering frivolous questions.

The person asking the question will not feel it is random (of course not!). The person asking the question has the duty to be simple and clear when asking the question. If you are not getting an answer, it is likely you don’t have the attention of the receiver, or the receiver is simply out of bandwidth to answer your question. Don’t ask a question just because you can.

In a busy and fast moving workplace, the person tasked with answering the question has mere seconds to decide whether to ignore, deflect, or answer the question. A wrong choice could be career limiting.

Action items handed out by executives and senior managers sometimes fall in this category. The “problem of the day” is not as important as the strategic choices made in the planning phase.

You did have a planning session, right?

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